Flooding, insecurity delay MTN’s Network up-grade

Telecom services provider, MTN has appealed for understanding from its customers and other key stakeholders as it continues its Network Modernization and swap-out exercise.

The company’s Corporate Services Executive, Mr. Wale Goodluck at a press briefing on Tuesday in Lagos said the various activities related to MTN’s Network Modernization are progressing steadily. but noted that it was being affected by recent flood nationwide and insecurity.

“We regret, however, that the pace of work has been considerably challenged by the spate of insecurity coupled with the unprecedented flooding being experienced in many parts of the country,” Goodluck stated.

The network optimization exercise will affect over 4,000 base stations out of over 10, 000 across the country.

According to Goodluck “the task that we are undertaking is tantamount to building a new network .We are seeking to replicate what we achieved over a six year period in nine months”.

He explained that considerable progress has been recorded with regards to the ongoing network improvement plans adding that several swap-outs have reached very advanced stages of completion.

“The entire network modernization process is a very logistic-intensive one and the problem of insecurity has seriously affected the pace of work in some parts of the country.”
In at least 13 states, Goodluck added that flooding has created additional logistic impediments such that the pace of the ongoing network modernization efforts has slowed down.

While acknowledging that MTN’s customers have been experiencing some disruption over the last few weeks, the Corporate Service Executive said as much as possible, the company would stick to its original plan of carrying out the network procedures only at night, in order to minimize disruptions to services.

MTN’s current network modernization and swap-out exercise which began in July 2012 is expected to cover the entire country and was originally expected to span a period of nine months.
Its objectives are to considerably enhance capacity on the MTN Network and improve service quality. Under the project, which is being implemented by a combined team of MTN engineers and technical partners that include Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE, key network components are being swapped with the latest upgrades in the industry. Current power systems are also being replaced with hybrid power systems which are more environment-friendly.